Mistake
by Ithinkyoullknxw
Summary: "In moments of pain, we seek revenge."
1. Chapter 1

_A small introduction based on something a bit different. Just a short story, an idea I've had floating around for a while. Please review if you're interested in more :)_

Sometimes, everything hurts. All of a sudden, she didn't care any more. She didn't care about waking up or staying sober. She didn't care about work or the money she was flitting away. She just wanted to sleep. Sleep, and not wake up. She longs for it. When she closes her eyes and dreams of burning flames she wishes for them to engulf her, to take her instead of them. She'd trade with her innocent victims in a heartbeat.

No one notices the storms in her eyes, no one hears the silence in her words and no one feels the heaviness in her heart. Well, it is not that they do not notice and more that they cannot save her. Not her new found passion for Nick, her deep rooted admiration for Roy or her love for her dearest, closest and most treasured best friend. None of them held the key to unlocking her misery, to her freedom. Her pain combined with a constant, confusing numbness was drowning her.

Carla was lost at sea with no way out but down.

* * *

One thing should have been on her mind since the death of her fiancé. Him. He should have consumed her every waking moment and those when she slept too. Grief should eat her alive, numb her, take her breath away. And it had, briefly. But soon it was replaced. There was only one thing keeping Leanne awake at night these days.

Revenge.

It wasn't that she was planning it, she was certainly dreaming of it, imagining it, wishing for it. But planning it was a step too far. Implementing a plan of revenge wasn't something she could actually take seriously. It wasn't within her, she wasn't that person.

Except; she was.

And what didn't help was the smile she saw across Carla's face as she saw her speaking to her own ex husband. Nick had always been her hero, not Carla's. And she may have moved on and so may he but that did not make this fair play. She did not get away with things quite so easily. If Leanne had looked hard enough, she might have noticed how dull the smile teasing Carla's lips was. She might have noticed the way tears welled in her eyes multiple times a day, ever since. But of course she didn't, because if she had, things may not have escalated quite so quickly, quite so drastically.

She hadn't meant for her anger to get the better of her. She hadn't meant for it to end in this way.

Still, no going back now. And if this was going to happen, she may as well enjoy it.


	2. Chapter 2

Leanne sinks down into a seat in the ever familiar Bistro with a sigh and swirls the white wine around the glass silently. She's not sure how she's ended up in this mess but she's sure as hell determined to make someone pay.

Nick throws her an almost awkward smile as he sits down opposite her, she notes how his eyes are constantly checking the time on the huge clock adorning the wall and she assumes her last minute plea for a chat has interrupted pre made plans. She doesn't need to ask who with.

"What's the matter, somewhere better to be?"

Nick plays stupid and shakes his head quickly, "Not at all. I've always got time for you Lea." His smile is friendly and she knows it's not the smile he saves for his new found lover. One that used to be reserved for her.

"So what did you want to talk about? Has something happened?"

"Oh nothing new you know, just the fact that your new floozy killed my fiance." She is getting through this wine quicker than she intended and she is suddenly grateful she brought the bottle over.

"Don't talk about her like that, Leanne." Nicks look is almost stern, as though warning her this is not the route to take with him. He is already defending Carla as harshly as be would have once done to her.

It hurts.

"I know you're hurting Leanne but trust me, so is Carla. It was an accident, a tragic accident."

Twisting the knife.

"Carla's hurting?! That woman wouldn't know pain if it smacked her in the face. She's all for herself that one, always 'as been. She's a walking disaster."

Nicks hand banging against the table with a slight force almost startles Leanne but not quite. "Stop it. I'm not going to sit here and listen to this Leanne so if this is what you wanted from me then think again." She half expects him to stand up and leave, rushing home to her but he doesn't. He gives her a second chance. Maybe there will always be another chance just around the corner with those two.

Long moments pass before either of them speak again. Awkward silences replace what were once conversations filled with laughter and love. "Why her?"

"What?"

Leanne shrugs as though the question is what he should have been expecting. Which of course he has. Nick has been waiting for this conversation since he and Carla had gone public only a couple of weeks before. He'd been expecting it, dreading it but he assumes that is what makes him so ready for it.

"Why Carla?"

"Why not?"

"She stole my husband, Nick."

"Did she Leanne? Or did I steal you first? Because the way I see it, no one was perfect in that relationship. Besides, she more than paid the price don't you think?"

Leanne's glass makes a loud noise as it hits the table and Nick is glad they waited until the restaurant shut before they had this conversation, "And I haven't? I've lost everything, Nick! I lost Peter, Kal. You! How could you move onto her?"

Nick shook his head quickly, the reminder of the end of their bittersweet relationship tugging at his heart. He had loved Leanne, totally, deeply. He always had. She scared him. The way Nick had felt for the untouchable woman in front of him had always scared him. He knew little things about Carla vaguely reminded him of his ex wife and maybe that is what had originally drawn him to her. But not anymore. The way she sips her white wine, so opposite to the red poison Carla pours down her neck only highlights how different they really are.

Nick had moved on, and he felt like Carla was the one to move on with. He felt like perhaps, given time, he could feel for her what he had once felt for Leanne. He was already well on the way to that.

"You moved on, Leanne. I had to do the same. Play fair for god sake." He was angry, she could tell. She always could.

"But why with her?!"

"Because I fell in love with her, Leanne! I think I love Carla. Is that a good enough reason?"

Leanne is stunned by that because although it is the answer she almost expected it is not the answer she wanted. She changed tact. She needs him to see what's in front of him. It's her last chance to take revenge and she feels if she doesn't get it she may lose her mind.

"We were good together once."

Nick nods, watching as she pours another wine.

It is larger than the last one.

"We were the best. But you know what they say about good things don't you Leanne? They all come to an end."

"They don't have to. What is it you always used to say about regrets? They're pointless unless you can do something about it, eh?" She speaks softer than before. Gentle, more like the Leanne he knows. The one he had been attracted to. In love with.

Nick is smiling but he isn't smiling at the reminder of their relationship, he is smiling at the reminder of Carla. He let's his mind think back to when he had said those words to her and what they had led to. That night, the next morning before reality kicked in. It was the happiest he had felt in such a very long time.

With a confused frown, Leanne pulls Nick from his thoughts, "Nick?"

"What is this about, Leanne?" He ignores her last statement.

"You know." She is watching intently, desperately. If she can only convince him how wrong Carla is for him, persuade him, remind him of the good times and all that could have laid ahead for them.

"This is ridiculous." He sees right through her. He wants no part in whatever games she is playing. He knows how much she is hurting but he knows she is playing with his head. Taking him away from Carla would leave her with the last laugh and he can see in her eyes how much she longs for it. Something about her had shifted. Something about her is not the Leanne he once knew inside out.

Nick stands quickly and the table shakes slightly at the surprise movment. He doesn't even look at her and he definitely doesn't speak as he grabs his coat from beside him and pushes her the keys to lock up.

"Nick, please, we haven't finished here."

"No Leanne, you haven't finished here. I have. I've moved on, you need to do the same with whatever issues you've got. Just let it go because you're never going to be happy otherwise. And I do want you to be happy."

Leanne is standing now too, walking towards him, "More than you want Carla to be happy?"

He shakes his head in frustration and sighed angrily, "Just leave her alone, Leanne. Get on with your own life. It's eating you alive."

Before Leanne can respond he has gone, the door swinging shut behind her. She makes her way to the door and watches as he makes his way across the street. It doesn't take her long to spot Carla walking alone along the street in the light rain at the same moment, a sullen, disappointed look across her features. Leanne assumes she fears she has been stood up by her new parter. That is until her eyes fall upon Leanne's ex husband and a smile traces her lips again.

The final push for Leanne is one that sends her completely over the edge. She watches as Nicks lips press against Carla's forehead and he pulls her to him, tucking her under his arm protectively to walk her home. The moment seems so real, so intense.

It's that moment that Leanne realises there is no going back.

She had thought she could rid herself of the ridiculous thoughts she was having. She thought if Nick would take her back he could help with Simon and the ache in her heart. Leanne thought that just maybe, she wouldnt need to do anything stupid if he would save her again. But if Nick doesn't want her, there's only one way forward.

Tomorrow, she'll seek revenge. Tomorrow, everything will be okay again.


	3. Chapter 3

Leanne doesn't know what happened, it was too quick, too sudden. She couldn't stop it, she couldn't do anything to fix it. She thought the screams were Carla's but they weren't, they were his. And that hurts her even more.

Sirens, handcuffs, a cell. She didn't know what was happening, she didn't know anything. All she knew was Kal death and driven her off the edge. Maybe what they whispered about her as she walked the street she called home, what they mouthed when they thought she wasn't listening, what Carla had screamed at her across the room, acting braver than she felt by far, maybe it was all true.

Maybe she was crazy.

 _"Ooh a nice black coffee please Roy, strong as you can please love." Carla rubbed her hands together to warm them up as she stood by the counter, the warmth of the cafe overcoming her as she had made her way inside from the brisk cold._

 _She laughed at something Michelle had said, clueless, unaware, trying to place her life back together._

 _"Oi, I want a word with you!" Harsh words filled the calm atmosphere and a confused Carla spun around, looking to see who Leanne's anger was aimed at, sighing as she realised what she should already have guessed._

 _"What now, Leanne?"_

 _"What now? Yeah you're damn right what now, Carla. Cos it's always something with you in't it! You've taken everyone I ever loved from me and you're just prancing around without a care in the world."_

 _Carla couldn't handle this, she couldn't face the guilt, "this isn't the time or the place Leanne. Go home."_

 _Leanne was undeterred and maybe, just maybe if someone had taken her seriously enough, if they had noticed the look in her eye, it all could have been prevented._

 _"First Peter, then Kal and now Nick. They were MINE, mine not yours to get your claws into. Everyone hates you, everything you stand for, everything you are. This street detests you. You'd be better off dead."_

 _Before anyone could realise what was happening, the silver blade was glittering dangerously in the light and suddenly, the room was still as fear crept over them._

 _"You're crazy." Carla tried to keep her voice steady, her nerves calm but suddenly she felt trapped, back in the factory with Tony, against her door with Frank, Anne and the knife, the fire, fire everywhere._

 _A commotion, Simon, Nick, confusion, "Leanne don't do anything silly."_

 _Michelle, not the voice of reason but the voice of desperation._

 _"Why him?"_

 _"What?" Her eyes on the knife._

 _"Why Nick?"_

 _Her eyes on him now, quickly, nervously, "Because I love him. I love him Leanne." And she does, and she thinks it will help and for a moment she thinks it has because the room seems to be silent but then she realises she is on the floor and there is blood and the blood is hers. She can't hear what they're saying but they're all there, Nick, Michelle, Roy._

 _They're all there and then, they are gone_.

A police officer, an unfriendly. Half a cup of water and a brief update.

Carla was dead.

Leanne doesn't remember much but she remembers what had been Carla's last word. Not Pauls name, not Peter's, not even Liam's. His. Nick. And she knows she'll remember his screams forever.

Carla was dead and she had killed her.

Revenge didn't feel sweet, it felt like red raw hands where she had scrubbed her blood away, it felt like Nick collapsing to the floor in grief for his girlfriend, it tasted like Simon's sobs and Roys pleading. It sounded like Michelle's harrowing scream and the word no over and over and over. It felt like no one looking at her, their eyes on the woman who had overcome so much who was fading away, it felt like Tracy's tears of regret and Sallys cries for the mistakes she couldn't ever rectify. It felt like Ken falling into a seat, his eyes telling how he had loved her like a daughter and wondering how his son would ever recover.

It sounded like Michelles "She just wanted to be loved, she just needed to be loved." It tasted like Nicks "Please, please, please." It felt like a factory that would never be the same, it felt like a woman who would never be a mother, a woman who'd been bent and broken and finally beaten.

It sounded like fire fire fire, Kal, fire, dead. It sounded like nameless words, hurried words, broken words, "it wasn't her, she didn't leave the candle, it was me. It was me." It felt like shock, pain, disbelief.

It felt like a mistake.

Carla was dead but Leanne wished she was instead.


End file.
